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Monday, July 21, 2008

WB Referendum Notes

The WB School referendum meeting yielded a good chunk of information. Bart Williams, an area resident, gave a power point presentation that got to the heart of the renovations that were necessary and reduced the expenditure to $34M. This guy was amazing. He took a humble approach, yet was educated and confident, listening to questions, answering with valid, fact-filled answers, and had done his homework - extensively.

Here are Mr. Williams' 10 KEY IDEAS:

1. To date, there has not been presented to the public any comprehensive and conclusive study showing a direct link between age of buildings and academic achievement.2. Just six months ago (Nov. 2007), residents of this district voted down by almost a 2-to-1 margin a $119.3 million facilities referendum.3. Innovative ideas designed to help U.S. public education remain competitive with the rest of the world should be seriously considered as part of any long-term facilities plan.4. A solid majority of adult District residents do not have children under 18 and, therefore, do not have students in our public school; however, the public money you are considering spending is every bit as much theirs as it is those who have children in our District's schools.5. Even despite this parents-of-school-age-children bias, that same survey shows that additional facilities space did not even make the top five out of 10 priorities lists as "most important" to all survey respondents on the topic of facility factors at all sites.6. It is critically important to distinguish between true facilities needs vs. "wants" or "nice to haves."7. These are tough economic times, and the relatively low-population (i.e., 30,000 people in West Bend, and less than that in each of our other municipalities and towns), conservative community that is our District is now even less likely to support the largest referendum in Wisconsin history.8. People care about their TOTAL property bill, not simply the West Bend Joint School District #1 component of it.9. Ill-advised, overpriced referenda needlessly divide the community and delay progress on fixing our schools.10. The Board should provide full and timely disclosure of the total, fully-loaded costs (i.e., with all 20 years of the bond interest expense added up, in addition to paying off the bonds' principal) of all referendum options. This would also include the interest rate used in calculating that fully-loaded cost figure.

Williams further explained the top three goals that should be considered with this referendum:1. Safe and secure schools.2. Securing front entrances at all schools.3. Fiscally rresponsible operations of the buildings

Williams' proposed referendum revision saves the taxpayers approximately $100M and efficiently addresses the top three priorities on the school board's agenda for the schools in our district.

After Williams' presentation, the board did some picking apart, but Williams held his own, appearing fully prepared. He made note of the costly and inappropriate survey sent out by the school board (kudos!), and also made it known that the school board did not fully cooperate in giving him the information he required to solidify his revised referendum proposal.

There was a solid turnout of citizens, most of whom applauded Williams at the end of his presentation to the school board. It appeared that the only people in opposition to the lower price tag on the referendum was a gentleman from the Jackson Village Board and another man I did not recognize. There was plenty of noise from the audience concerning the expense of the current referendum, and nearly everyone who spoke showed appreciation to Mr. Williams for his efforts.

Our most gracious thanks to this gentleman and his wife for all of their hard work on behalf of the taxpayers in the West Bend School District!

Taxpayers who may be reading this post should consider attending the next committee meeting to hear Mr. Williams' next revised presentation, which he has stated he will do to include some of the issues brought up by the school board tonight. He is candid, easy to understand and is very organized. When thanked for his presentation after the meeting, he told me that it is all worth it if the taxpayers genuinely respond to his time-consuming efforts. He feels the referendum should be something the West Bend taxpayers WANT to support.

2 comments:

wbenderlongerthanu
said...

All your babble about enrollment (also referring to your 7/8/08 post) as far as opt-outs vs opt-ins. You act like you have "discovered" something that no one else knew via open records request. How about taking the time to actually read the paper - the Daily News covered that 3/13/07 & 4/24/07 & 6/11/08.

You sound like a real "newbie" - the harassment issue got you all moist down there and juiced up, now you have really jumped into all these other issues without any historical perspective. Stick with the harassment issue - that seems to be something you know about. Otherwise, you come across as an "Owen Robinson" wanna-be trying to make a name for yourself, taking a minimal amount of info as a jumping off point to ramble on.

Thank you for your post. I certainly have not discovered anything new. You are absolutely correct. I am simply posting the information so that those who are naive to the facts can educate themselves. And there are plenty of those people. Newbie? I certainly do humbly admit that! You are right again! If you feel I emulate Owen Robinson in any way, then I am honored.

No Pinning. Thanks!

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TIMELINE OF ALA'S HIJACKING OF THE WEST BEND LIBRARY

YOUR LIBRARY: NO LONGER A SAFE PLACE

The West Bend Community Memorial Library and members of the SHARE Library System (to include Germantown, Slinger, Hartford and Kewaskum) no longer can be considered SAFE FOR CHILDREN.

Your library board believes:

1. All materials should be available for all ages (anything goes). Really!2. National control cannot (and should not) be resisted; therefore, the disturbing value system of the ALA, OIF,WLA trumps local control of the library by the citizens and taxpayers it serves.3. Young adults are children ages 11 through 17. (Be sure to address your 11 year old in a manner appropos.)4. Assisting parents in identifying sexually explicit materials within your library is not important to them.5. You must stay with your children and read each book he/she checks out to assure they are not entering into the YA Zone, that is, the "Yes to All Zone."6. ..that if other people's young children (even younger than 11....) are openly reading books of a sexually explicit, graphic nature, say nothing...and by all means, don't stop them from checking them out. You, too, can have an 8-year-old snag "The Joy of Sex" off the shelf right here in your very own library!7. ..that porn filters are not required, therefore, none are needed. True loyalty to the many children they serve. After all, we would not want to restrict freedom of speech to those young'uns!8. ...that organizations such as SafeLibraries,PFOX, PABBIS, and Family Friendly Libraries, that work to protect children from being sexually victimized are not welcome in our community.

9. That the excerpts listed below (WARNING: NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN) are perfectly acceptable for the eyes of children.

This is a propagana battle to ensure children retain access to inappropriate mateial despite the law, common sense and community standards.

PARENTS, TAXPAYERS, CITIZENS OF THE SHARED LIBRARY SYSTEM OF THE WEST BEND COMMUNITY MEMORIAL LIBRARY.......

YOU NO LONGER ARE A TAXPAYING SUPPORTER AND/OR PATRON OF A FAMILY-SAFE LIBRARY.